Michael Jude Galvin

The KEF LS50W (“W” for wireless) is a fully active set of bookshelf speakers based on KEF’s award-winning LS50 compact reference monitors. For an extra $700, the $2199 LS50W looks to add a ton of value and performance, including dual-mono bi-amplification, wireless streaming, upsampling D/A converters, full DSP controls, a dedicated app, and a remote control.

While turntables have become so ubiquitous that the news of any new model is pretty much white noise, it’s time to pay attention. Starting with a price around $1600, the GEM Dandy PolyTable is George Merrill’s gauntlet and it’s nothing short of superb.

The “GEM” in GEM Dandy is none other than analog guru George E. Merrill who has been a fixture in the hi-fi business since the early 1970s. During that time, in addition to operating his hi-fi retail operation in Memphis, he has designed, modified...

1983. The compact disc is introduced and record companies everywhere rejoice at the prospect of selling everyone worse sounding versions of music they already own. The universe, however, seeks a balance. The same year, Naim unleashes the first Nait integrated amplifier and the product category is never the same. The runtish, low-powered amplifier was controversial on many fronts, but its astonishing degree of musicality was never in dispute. The Naim Supernait 2 integrated amplifier does not deviate from their unique path that began more than three decades ago.

On its website, respected British manufacturer Audiolab proclaims the M-DAC is the follow-up to the 8000 DAC, introduced all the way back in 1992. I have gathered that DACs were quite popular in that era because CD players had not become all that good yet. With the market now awash in quality DACs, I guess it is safe to say we are in a DAC renaissance. Here, we review the Audiolab M-DAC, which, at $899, turns out to be an audio bargain.

NAD launched its first direct digital amplifier, the M2, almost three years ago. As we have come to expect in audio and technology generally, however, it is never long before the state of the art trickles down to more modestly-priced products.

Moving can really suck. On top of everything else, it seems like I always lose stuff, at least temporarily. Eventually, that lost pair of shoes will turn up in a box labeled "towels," but it had been a few months since the move and I was still looking for some of the magic of my system.

It would truly surprise me if anyone reading this review had not heard of JL Audio. Notwithstanding JL Audio's stellar reputation in the car audio world, its Fathom and Gotham series of subwoofers have set the home audio/video world on fire like few products in recent memory.

Michael is an attorney based in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and is an Associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the largest law firm in the United States devoted solely to business litigation. He is originally from Chicago.

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SECRETS of Home Theater and High Fidelity was launched in 1994 as the first major publication offering serious audio/video journalism on the Internet.

Our magazine, which began with the publication of the SECRETS Primer, is available exclusively on-line and offers to our readers an extensive information resource about home theater and high-end audio.